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if you don't want to buy any hardware, download Ableton Live and drop tunes in there.

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/dji ... eton-live/

it's not as awesome as turntables but it's a decent way to start practicing the concepts of DJing.

Sweet. Honestly I don't really care about the whole playing clubs/events thing where you just play other people's music. I just want to know how, as a producer, to present my music live. I mean, I don't consider myself a DJ as much as an artist so I just want some way in which I can play music live and make it interesting. I know how to make mixes and stuff. Most of what DJ'ing seems to be to me is just "press play, bounce around, twist knobs that may or may not do things"

naw... that ain't what it is. it's spinning records, beat mixing, proper selection, proper mutual feedback system between DJ and crowd response.
Knowing your gear inside and out, as well as your music collection, playing god at the party and doing a good job of it, never dropping the groove, building things up, climaxing, reeling it back in, going someplace else.
Knowing which tunes are gonna sound great in succession, knowing which tunes are gonna blend really well when you roll off the bass on one or the other, using your EQs..
aking it a unique listening experience

A great DJ imo would be someone who can start off a night on a 2steppy tip, or 4x4 garage, or disco, something like that. liven things up a bit, get us started, gradually mix in some bouncy halfstep tunes, ride that vibe to an increasingly intense point of climax, and let loose the drop on the first banger of the night... mix 3-5 minutes of lasers, then reel us back in until we find ourselves in the dungeon.. Stay there for awhile... repeat steps as necessary based on crowd reactions. I mean thats just one way things could pan out, but there are so many ways to spin records artistically, and make a whole new experience out of it. If there weren't, the scene and the industry never would have grown to this point.

ClosedEyeVisuals wrote:Sweet. Honestly I don't really care about the whole playing clubs/events thing where you just play other people's music. I just want to know how, as a producer, to present my music live. I mean, I don't consider myself a DJ as much as an artist so I just want some way in which I can play music live and make it interesting. I know how to make mixes and stuff. Most of what DJ'ing seems to be to me is just "press play, bounce around, twist knobs that may or may not do things"

you must be looking at the wrong DJs then.
I will admit.. there are a lot of DJ who do just press play and fade in and out.
I listened to a future-ish garage mix the other day.. was quite hyped.. but when I listened it was and hour of pure crossfade to crossfade + FX (filters at really random times). i'd say about 80% of it was beatmatched.

imo.. the minimum requirements to be called a DJ are:
Beatmatching, Song selection, EQing
Club/Party DJs need to know how to read the crowd.

T-Flex wrote:if you don't want to buy any hardware, download Ableton Live and drop tunes in there.

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/dji ... eton-live/

it's not as awesome as turntables but it's a decent way to start practicing the concepts of DJing.

two different concepts. ableton, well rocked, is as awesome as twin decks.. id even say, these days i tend to think it gives way more dynamic performances ...

apples to oranges.... well, i guess the sonic effects are comparable... but still. Don't people often mix stems in Ableton sets?

OK the reason why some people just press play and bounce around is because its easy. You can get one of those MIDI Controllers with the two simulated turntables for computer DJ'ing and create your own mixes. You can set loop points and trigger samples and whatnot and set effects and of course crossfade but its more than that. Once you want to move beyond that, you can get Ableton and send your mixes into thereone way or another because there you have a greater potential for adding ANY flavor of your own... or if you're in a rush just get Ableton now - most things are done in software. I would also take into consideration what the other people said about beat matching, song choice and moving onto actual vinyl turntables once you get the hang.

I personally never got along with ableton when it comes to DJing.
I would love to really get a feel for it, but when I tried I couldn't get my mixes as tight as DVS/vinyl
If ableton had some kind of nudge function for individual tracks, or even a pitch fader(+/-8%), then I would probably use ableton
at least until Traktor supports VST/AUs.
Traktor + plugins = amazing!

I've debated setting up my mixer to have my vinyls go to ableton or reaper then back to the mixer so I can use plugins..
I might actually try that out now that I have some free time!

amidoinitrite wrote:I personally never got along with ableton when it comes to DJing.
I would love to really get a feel for it, but when I tried I couldn't get my mixes as tight as DVS/vinyl
If ableton had some kind of nudge function for individual tracks, or even a pitch fader(+/-8%), then I would probably use ableton
at least until Traktor supports VST/AUs.
Traktor + plugins = amazing!

I've debated setting up my mixer to have my vinyls go to ableton or reaper then back to the mixer so I can use plugins..
I might actually try that out now that I have some free time!

You or He, can do this with Traktor as well. Send the output of Traktor into ableton and you get to use whatever VST plugins you like. Its great i've done it.

Wasted at the restaruant last night, and I decided to come home and hit the laptop. Trust me my facebook is worse. I'm still wasted though, and bout to head to work. Hopefully I don't puke on anyone.

WIN

Cool, thanks for all the advice guys. Honestly, I don't really like the idea of being a DJ at a party as much as mixing my own music I've produced at a show, more in vein of traditional rock and hip-hop shows as opposed to parties and raves.

i dunno who wants to book a performer who's gonna solely mix their own original stems... then again, what do I know...
i guess people do it, with varying degrees of actual live production, or musical instrument performance going on.

ClosedEyeVisuals wrote:Cool, thanks for all the advice guys. Honestly, I don't really like the idea of being a DJ at a party as much as mixing my own music I've produced at a show, more in vein of traditional rock and hip-hop shows as opposed to parties and raves.

actually on the hip hop tip that is pretty wrong. hip hop from the start was all about celebrating OTHER PEOPLE'S music...

i got ur point tho...

still think a mix of both is the best u could have... (thinking lunice for instance)

ClosedEyeVisuals wrote:DJ'ing seems to be to me is just "press play, bounce around, twist knobs that may or may not do things"

If you'd do that the music will stop after every track + there's way more but that has probably been covered already.